A pair of hippos helped a duckling escape from a pond by giving it a little boost so that it could be reunited with its mum.

The incident took place at Diergaarde Blijdorp Zoo in the Netherlands and was captured on camera by a visitor. In the clip, the duckling can be seen swimming from side to side in a bid to find an area low enough for it to successfully climb out of the pond.It makes a chirping noise and calls for the assistance of its mother, who can be seen standing a short distance away.

But she fails to come over, and the duckling, which becomes increasingly distressed, is left to try and jump over the pond’s large surrounding wall by itself. Reacting to the young bird’s cries for help, a large hippo swims over and begins tracking its progress.

It moves around with the duckling and lowers its head towards it as if trying to offer it a form of assistance. The duckling doesn’t seem fazed by the presence of the large mammal and instead continues to find a way out with much tenacity.Another hippo then swims over to provide the young bird with further assistance.

The video concludes with the two large mammals moving alongside the duckling and lowering their heads low enough to offer a platform.Sure enough the plan works and the baby bird is able to hop onto one of them before hopping out of the pond to freedom.